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A

CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY

OF THE

VOYAGES' AND DISCOVERIES

IN THE

SOUTH SEA

OR

PACIFIC OCEAN.

VOLUME V.

To the Year 1764.

BY JAMES BURNEY, F.R.S.

CAPTAIN IN THE ROYAL NAVY.

London:

Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons, near Lincoln's-Inn Fields;

AND SOLD BY G. & W. NICOL, BOOKSELLERS TO HIS MAJESTY, AND T. PAYNE & H. FOSS, PALL-MALL;
LONGMAN, HORST, REES, ORME & BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW; CADELL DAVIES, IN THE STRAND;
NORNAVILLE & FELL, BOND-STREET; AND J. MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREEF.

1817.

CHAP. VIII.

      In the early charts and in the old tables of situations, many Islands are marked of which no other notices have come before the public. Most of these are omitted in the charts now in use, being excluded by later discoveries; and some are still retained. They possess nearly alike a kind of traditional authority; and some of them a possibility, nothing to the contrary being known, of being met with at a future period. It is therefore endeavoured here to collect them into one list.

      Among the hydrographic authorities for early Discoveries in the South Sea, the one which has been most generally consulted is the Spanish chart published with the History of Commodore Anson's Voyage, in which the track of the Manila galeon is described; it being more generally known than any other early chart of the Pacific Ocean, in consequence of its being so published. On applying to it, and making the necessary examination, an extraordinary variation is found in it from other charts and from the tables then in use.

      The original from which the chart in Anson was published, was a manuscript chart drawn for the use of the Spanish General of the Galeons, and, it is said, contained all the Discoveries which had at any time been made in the navigation between the Philippine Islands and New Spain. The copy published by Mr. Walter places Acapulco 134° 15' of longitude to the East from the Embocadero de San Bernardino, whereas other charts and

the tables of situations printed about that time, place Acapulco only 124 1/2° of longitude from the Embocadero. This difference of ten degrees nearly, between the chart in Anson and the other charts, is not one of gradual increase from a commencement at any part, but takes place all at once in the middle of the chart, and ruas through all the Eastern part, the Western not partaking, but being in near agreement with other charts and with the tables. By this sudden disagreement, two banks, that of Manuel Rodriguez and the Baxo de Villa lobos, which are only five degrees of longitude apart in other charts, are made fifteen degrees apart in the chart in Anson, which thus standing alone in opposition to all other authority, must be presumed to be in error. It seems the most natural conjecture, that the original from which it was copied was in two or more separate parts (as is generally the case with the Spanish charts of the navigation between New Spain and the Philippines, which are not on a very small scale, on account of the great extent in longitude) and that the English editor, or the engraver, in joining them, mistook the divisions.

      A table of situations in latitude and longitude was printed at Manila in 1734, in a work entitled Navigacion Especulativa y Pratica, the author of which, Joseph Gonzalez Cabrera Bueno, was an Almirante, and Pilot major in the navigation between the Philippine Islands and New Spain; circumstances which render his work good authority for the Islands which had been discovered in the Northern part of the Pacific. In the following list, which, is not wholly confined to Islands not before noticed, the situations are given from Cabrera Bueno; and in the Western part, also from the chart in Anson.

      Situations of Islands in the route from the Philippines to Acapulco; the first meridian being taken at the Embocadero de San Bernardino.^*

      The three Islands next mentioned were discovered by Bernardo de la Torre in the San Juan, in 1543, and named Los Volcanes. See Vol. I. p. 239. They were seen in the last voyage of Captain Cook; and the Fortuna or Farrallon, which is the middle one of the three (named in the present charts Sulphur Island) was found to be in latitude 24° 48' N; and longitude from Greenwich 141° 20' E (equal to about 17° 35' from the Embocadero de San Bernardino) which is 3° 45' more East than the longitude given to Fortuna in the table of Bueno, and is a ground for correction of the situations of the Islands near it.

      The Farellon de Paxaros is the most Northern of the Marianas or Ladrones, being to the North of Urac, which is the most Northern in the chart of P. Alonzo Lopez. Texeira carries the Ladrones still further North, making them extend to 22° 00' N latitude. [See Vol. III opposite to p. 293.]

      For the Islands M. the route from Acapulco to the Philippines, most of the situations which appear in the chart of the track of the galeon in Commodore Anson's voyage, would require a

deduction of ten degrees from the longitude. In preference to which, two Spanish manuscript charts, one by Joseph Belverde, A pilot, the other without the author's name, and both without dates, but which in the delineation and in the writing are after the manner in use in the early part of the last century, have been recurred to for joint testimony with the table of Cabrera Bueno.

Islands in the route from Acapulco to the Philippines.

      La Mesa and los Manges are supposed to be the Islands at present named the Sandwich Islands, but the longitude in which tbey were found by Captain Cook has been an objection. La Mesa (supposed to be the Island Owhyhee) is laid down in the chart shewing the track of the galeon, 100° 30' E from the Emboc. de San Bernardino, which is equal to 224° 15' E or Greenwich. Owhyhee, the body of it, according to modern observations, is in 203 1/2° longitude E of Greenwich, which is a difference of above 20 degrees, and a larger error than can be conceived to have been made in so short a run as from the coast of New Spain. But according to Bueno's table, la Mesa is 214° 05' E of Greenwich, which differs from the known longitude of Owhyhee only 10° 35'; and the manuscript chart quoted gives the difference not quite eight degrees. The name la Mesa signifying the Table, is descriptive of the high level land of Owhyhee. The latitude accords; la Mesa also is laid down to the SE of the other Islands; all which leaves little reason to doubt the identity of la Mesa and Owhyhee.

List continued.

      Between the parallels of 8° N and 12° N, and in longitude from 23° E to 42' E from the Emb. de San Bernardino, many banks and reefs are laid down in the old charts, and some notices inserted of them in the Tables. The Islands Westward, and between the parallel of these and the equinoctial line, have been considered as belonging to the Carolinas Islands.

More Northward on the Charts, are

Source:

      The chapter transcribed above is from Volume 5, pages 157-162 of Burney's work cited below:

James Burney.
      A chronological history of the discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean; illustrated with charts.
    London: Printed by Luke Hansard, 1803-1817. 5 v. : ill., plates, maps ; 32 cm.

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